Elec-Trak E10M

[alan]

Most of you will know that I have a battery powered GE Elec-Trak tractor in a bit of a sorry state.

I detailed quite a bit of it on the old forum, but briefly, it was built in the USA on the 26th January 1973, and was sold by a dealership in Evesham to a local estate, it was used for many years but eventually ended up in a barn for 20 years gathering dust. I acquired it in March this year.

I was going to restore it this year (and might have taken it to Newark this November!) but I’ve been a bit busy and I haven’t got around to it. But, I did manage to strip the electrics and see what damage there was to the wiring and make a wiring diagram (picture attached) and I did buy it a new 36V battery charger (as advised by other Elec-Trak owners who told me what to get) as I am unsure what the existing on-board charger will be like after years of neglect.

So I have now figured out the electrics and compared them to how they really should be, and got a new charger. And that’s about it so far.

I did do some research online about Elec-Traks in the UK which took me via Mountfield, Flymo, Norlett and fleetingly past Black & Decker too. It’s amazing how various companies are related if only by a common product innovation or interest.

I’ll update this when I finally get some more done!

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[wristpin]

Interesting project. Can’t help wondering if modern battery technology and all the work done developing the current generation of electric vehicles would make such a machine more viable to day. I know that Ransomes Jacobsen have developed an electric greens mower but there doesn’t seem to be much feed back as to how well it is working. Shortly after an early production machine was being taken on a demonstration tour of some golf courses a Ransomes dealer’s service tech described it to me as a B****y Nightmare! Does anyone know how it is doing?

[hillsider]

It is good see that this project is still live, I remember the first posting of it in the
old forum.
I guess that it is a balancing act with such machines between battery capacity and current demands, the more batteries needed the heavier the machine gets and so more costly to build. Traction batteries as used in fork trucks are a fearful price and even the batteries as used in golf buggies are not be cheap to replace.

[alan]

I’m not sure if new battery technology would tempt folk into buying an electric machine. I do wonder how Ransomes (and others) have got on recently with new technology?

I remember reading a customer survey that Elec-Trak had carried out and they asked people their views on an electric ride-on-mower. Many people said that having an electric machine was unfamiliar and if anything went wrong then they wouldn’t be able to fix it themselves – unlike a petrol machine where at least diagnosis can be far easier than trying to fumble about with so many unknown electrical components and wires etc. Also a petrol machine could be fixed by any competent mower mechanic unlike an all-electric machine.

Another point raised in the customer survey was that when a petrol mower gets low on juice then we can just top it up and go again within a couple of minutes, whereas an electric tractor such as my Elec-Trak needs at least 2 hours to recharge 40% and 5 hours to recharge 85% according to the brochure in the early 70’s.

And don’t you think that hearing a petrol engine running on a tractor sounds good?!!

At present the batteries, think they are T105’s, come in at £700 for the set. I’ve got the battery charger, but I also need to replace all the electrics, the wiring is a bit of a mess and some switches etc certainly don’t work…..think it’d be easier and cheaper to rebuild a 10hp Briggs engine!

[vhgmcbuddy]

ive bought one of these myself alan i hav”nt picked it up yet, but ive been thinking about wheather linking it to a small petrol generator is a viable option so it would charge up on the move, it would be good to get some feedback from other members like wristpin on there thoughts could it work?

[wristpin]

Don’t know anything about them or have any in depth knowledge about “traction electrics”. Is the power source one 36 volt battery or 3 x 12? The outputs of most small gen sets are are usually 110v and/or 230v and on those with a battery charging option it is usually 12v so where this would leave you I will leave to others!

[alan]

Nigel, we also had the thought of installing a small petrol engine to run a generator to charge the batteries but haven’t progressed any further with my limited knowledge of these things.

The machine I have and I presume yours also is the E10M, the M stands for ‘mid mounted mower’. These tractors run on 6 x 6v batteries making 36 volts. But there was a smaller machine called the E8M. This has 3 x 12v batteries also making 36 volts.

For everyone who doesn’t know these machines, there’s a battery compartment under the bonnet and another under the seat as shown in the photos. Three car sized batteries fit in each. So far so good, but we thought we could perhaps install 3 x 12v under the seat (as in the E8M machine) and install a small 2 or 3hp engine under the bonnet to charge the batteries. How to get the system to work is another problem!

I know this deviates away from the tractor being as it would have been when it left the factory but it is a possible way to bring it up to modern day thinking. Possibly.

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[vhgmcbuddy]

Alan,i like your reasoning on the mobile self charging theory and have you made any more progress on this ?

[alan]

Hi John,

I’ve not made any progress yet but have had a look at the new BMW i3 car as it also has the same technology. It has an optional 650cc engine that charges the batteries as it goes along.

In theory it is all possible for the Elec-Trak but my limited technical knowledge will certainly struggle with it!

[vhgmcbuddy]

Sounds like a good project Alan, and would work out cheaper than 6 car batteries !!

I have managed to acquire some Elec Trak literature from you know where, sods law not on the E10M though, there’s info on the E8M and the larger models…

[vhgmcbuddy]

Just a thought here,would it work if an alternator was fitted with small spikes instead of a v pulley and lowered to the ground as you cut the lawn. in turn as you travelled along the alternator would rotate and a charging system would kick in. very geekish statement john.

[vhgmcbuddy]

alan i have just broken one of these as it was to far gone to do any thing with but i have the bonnet and other panels that you are welcome to if they are of any use? i must say one thing, when i got mine i stood back from it and decided this has got to be the ugliest ride-on ive ever seen and that was probaly one of the major factors why they did not catch on

[alan]

Thanks for the offer of panels Nigel. I think all the panels on my tractor are intact and reasonably straight – I’ll have a look this week and see if there is anything I have missed.

I want to have a look at renovating the Elec-Trak this year, but don’t know when. I’ve got a busy year ahead with work and business related stuff so it may not be until autumn that I get back to the Elec-Trak. But by then I may have worked out how to make the thing work!

[alan]

Thought I’d put a few pictures on here for reference:

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[hillsider]

https://www.forktruckspares.com/index.php

While looking for a company in Wales that I used to source pallet truck parts from I stumbled across the company above they look more promising as a source of parts/info than the company that I was looking for.

ray

[Author]

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